Mediagazer: What the Forbes model of contributed content means for journalism (Jeff Sonderman/Poynter)

9:25 PM ET, May 31, 2012

Top News:

To GOP, blatant bias in vetting — On the front page of its Sunday edition, the New York Times gave a big spread to Ann Romney spending lots of time and tons of money on an exotic genre of horse-riding. The clear implication: The Romneys are silly rich, move in rarefied and exotic circles, and are perhaps a tad shady.

Discussion: Mediaite, Slate, The Atlantic Online, Poynter, The New York Observer, Erik Wemple, The Huffington Post, Poynter, Gawker, Mother Jones, @dylanbyers, @antderosa, @weareyourfek, Capital New York, New York Magazine, NewsBusters.org blogs and Weekly Standard

Devin Gordon / GQ:

Five Points About Politico's Hatchet Job On NYT and WaPo — Here's the piece, published this morning. The upshot: The political coverage of The New York Times and The Washington Post is “blatantly biased” in their vetting of Romney versus Obama. (Guess which way they supposedly lean.)

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Talking Points Memo, Politico and Erik Wemple

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

New York Times, Washington Post Defend Against Politico's Media Bias Claims — NEW YORK — Politico's executive editor, Jim VandeHei, and chief White House correspondent, Mike Allen, suggested Thursday that The New York Times and Washington Post are biased in favor of President Barack Obama …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs

Oliver Burkeman / Guardian:

Perhaps I'm biased, but can we please stop talking about ‘media bias’? — No human can adopt a position of perfect neutrality. Can we at least agree on that? — There is something brain-stretchingly confusing about today's article on media bias in Politico, headlined “To GOP, Blatant Bias In Vetting”.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, @antderosa and @jayrosen_nyu

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Producer of Obama Video on Fox News Loses CNN Job Offer — The Fox News producer behind a provocative four-minute anti-Obama video that aired Wednesday and caused the network considerable embarrassment has found his career on ice. — The producer, Chris White, had been offered a job by CNN before the video was broadcast.

Discussion: New York Magazine, TVNewser, Mediaite, AintItCool, Inside Cable News, entertainment.time.com, AdAge, NewsBusters.org blogs, Media Matters for America, The Daily Beast, Guardian and Media Decoder

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:
Cable News Ratings Fall Across the Board, From Fox to MSNBC

Discussion: TVNewser, Capital New York, Erik Wemple, The Huffington Post, Radio & Television …, Inside Cable News and Los Angeles Times

John Hudson / The Atlantic Wire:
MSNBC Produced Its Own Anti-Romney Video in February

Discussion: @jwpetersnyt, Mediaite, Inside Cable News, The Week, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Huffington Post, TVNewser, Hot Air, Baltimore Sun and Chickaboomer

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

What the Forbes model of contributed content means for journalism — Two years ago, Forbes.com was a news website like most others. — Today, it is less website, more operating system — an underlying layer of technology that hundreds of contributors use to publish independently.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and GigaOM

Jim Romenesko:

Times-Picayune editor on reporting ambitions, salary rumors — New Orleans Times-Picayune editor's memo to staff, sent this morning: From: Jim Amoss Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 7:18 AM To: Newsroom Staff Subject: some facts Dear colleagues, In our meetings at Howard Avenue and the East Jefferson bureau …

Steve Myers / Poynter:
Will other Advance newspapers face cuts like Times-Picayune, Alabama papers?

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Judge gives OK to authors, photographers to sue Google over book scanning (Updated) — In a major development in the long-running case over Google's unauthorized book-scanning, a federal judge ruled today that groups representing authors and photographers could go forward with a class action.

Discussion: Media Decoder and Jacket Copy

Dylan Tweney / VentureBeat:

Digital news pioneer Michael Bloomberg reads 8 newspapers a day — New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made billions of dollars as the founder of the disruptive digital news and data service that bears his name, prefers to get his news the old-fashioned way: On dead trees.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Tech Trade, mediabistro.com, Capital New York, AllThingsD, FishbowlNY, New York Times and Poynter

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Now playing: The New York Times signs on to Hulu to reach a new audience for its long videos — You can now find videos from The New York Times on Hulu, thanks to a content licensing agreement between the paper and the popular video site. — Video produced for NYTimes.com …

Discussion: New York Times

Anna Heim / The Next Web:

Amazon nabs Dilbert and Doonesbury digital comics anthologies as a Kindle Fire exclusive — Two anthologies of Doonesbury and Dilbert comic strips will be available in digital format for the first time as a Kindle Fire exclusive, Amazon announced today. This is the result of a deal between the company and Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Sorkin On ‘The Newsroom’: ‘None of the characters are inspired by real people, not even a little bit’ — TV and film writer Aaron Sorkin appeared at the All Things D conference, where he talked about writing the Steve Jobs biopic, and of course “The Newsroom,” his upcoming cable news-centric show on HBO.

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

Dudley Clendinen Dies at 67; Wrote About Civil Rights, Aging and His Impending Death — Dudley Clendinen, a courtly Southern journalist and author who wrote lyrically about civil rights, aging in America, the poignancy of ordinary lives and his own approaching death as a gay alcoholic victim …

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Letters to the DOJ: Public speaks out on e-book pricing case — As the Department of Justice's lawsuit against Apple and five big publishers for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices moves forward, the public has the chance to respond with their take on the allegations.

Discussion: Forbes and paidContent

Dan Kennedy / Nieman Journalism Lab:

How news executives can fend off the Wolff at their door — Facebook's disappointing IPO may be indicative of a larger problem: the declining value of online advertising, an inexorable force that will eventually destroy not just Facebook, but the web itself. — Sound nuts?

Discussion: The Wall Blog and Forbes